By Nellie Peyton and Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -South Africa’s new coalition government will pursue reforms to boost economic growth and manage public finances in a way that stabilises debt, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in an address to parliament on Thursday.
The speech marked the official opening of a new five-year term of parliament, after a May election in which Ramaphosa’s African National Congress lost its majority for the first time in 30 years and was forced to bring opposition parties into government.
“We will continue to pursue a macroeconomic policy that supports growth and development, in a stable and sustainable manner,” Ramaphosa told lawmakers.
“We are firmly committed to steadily reducing the costs of servicing our debt so that we can redirect funds towards other critical social and economic needs”.
Ramaphosa outlined his administration’s plans for the next five years, touching on the importance of investing in infrastructure, the power sector and overhauling the country’s ailing freight rail network.
He said the new cabinet, which held its first meeting last weekend, was determined to work together in the interests of all South Africans, echoing the leader of the second-largest party who said this week that the coalition government’s plans had broad buy-in from its different political parties.
Ramaphosa said the coalition partners had taken the path of a “cooperation nation”.
(Reporting by Nellie Peyton and Wendell Roelf; Writing by Tannur Anders and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Alexander Winning)
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